This has been a lousy year so far for America’s Cycling Capital. Last month, a bunch of businesses along a major bike corridor co-signed a letter whining that if the city replaces spaces for free car parking with better, safer, sexier bike lanes, they might lose business to drivers, and so fire off their NIMBY missile they did. PBOT promptly dropped their plans for a smooth bike route up NE 28th avenue. Likely, these businesses just shot themselves in their collective foot, as now existing bike traffic will be diverted off this commercial drag to residential NE 30th. Whoops. Bye, bye bike business!

Then, this month, a cherished mural (that was technically an ad, but whatever) got buffed because apparently the city has a stupid code about the size of letters painted on certain historic buildings (but not others) the details of which are boring and nobody really cares that much. The point is this mural inspired a lot of people. It made them proud. It made them feel recognized for riding their bike via a 100 foot declaration of Portland being the fucking best at something.

Thursday, May 8th, 2014 – final days.

Some naysayers were quick to criticize Portland as undeserving of this title since we’ve stagnated at a 6% bike mode share for the last several years, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still the best. Quality, not quantity, right? Even if we weren’t ‘The Best’, you don’t stop cheering for your team when they don’t win the finals, amiright, Rip City?

Hi, folks. The defunct Columbia River Crossing freeway mega-expansion appears to be back. Mismanaging Perception will be live-blogging a committee hearing in Salem today, January 14th, 2014 beginning shortly before 1PM. For previous CRC related articles from MMP, click HERE. MMP’s CRC liveblog from last year can be reviewed HERE.

For those unfamiliar, or for those who believed this train-wreck had finally ended, it’s worth reviewing a few more of the facts. The CRC can not honestly be called a ‘bridge’. It is a 10-12 lane, 5 mile long freeway expansion and light rail extension over the Columbia River from Portland to Vancouver, WA. While doing nothing to reduce vehicle trips times or congestion, the CRC’s design and tolling appears entirely dependent on actually encouraging more trips to be taken by automobile, in total disregard for the climate crisis we now face.

Okay, I’m gonna try to keep this one short. After dancing on the grave of the CRC this summer, I’ve largely refrained from dragging myself through the nauseating task of tapping fingers to keyboard yet again over this $4 to $10 billion dollar mistake that just keeps on mistaking. Here we go.

To be clear, this is still a Dead Freeway. Oregon governor Kitzhaber declared such this summer, and despite his and other state Democrat’s best delusional efforts, the freeway mega-expansion has not been reanimated. The bonds approved in HB 2800 expired on September 30th, as mandated by several trigger requirements that were never met. There have, however, been some recent revelations worth noting. I’ll attempt to be brief.

Clackamas Country commissioners are demanding to see traffic diversion data generated by CRC contractor CDM Smith that, according to economist Joe Cortright, proves that new tolls on the CRC will divert so much traffic from the I-5 to the 205 that (A) the CRC will never pay for itself, and (B) so much more traffic will enter Clackamas and East Portland that citizens there will cough up a polluted lung while driving around searching for a space to park in their own hometown.

The Columbia River Crossing freeway mega-expansion has been slayed, there should be little doubt about this fact. Recent media hype over a potential re-animation of the nightmare project is just that: hype. It’s been speculated the moment that governor John Kitzhaber declared dead the $4-10 billion dollar freeway & light rail mega-project, Oregon AFL-CIO president Tom Chamberlain was calling up the gov, screaming expletive laden protest against such a quick surrender. Oregon might look like a progressive Democrat stronghold, but the reality is elected Dems in our state often slide into home with only 2-3% voter margins. Oregon Dems rarely have a shot at winning without a strong Labor ground game and DNC state PAC funding.

According to sources familiar with inter-legislative chatter, this last-second Hail Mary for the CRC is nothing more than posturing, simply an obligatory effort to please trade unions that lust after the biggest, costliest projects – not the kinds of cheaper, jobs-rich projects like the Common Sense Alternative to the CRC or the new CSA 2.0 plan currently being vetted.

For now, there is little worry a new CRC plan funded solely by Oregon tax payers could ever fly. According to sources, no Republicans in the Oregon legislature support such a plan should a special session be called in September. There is also internal information indicating elected Democrats fear a voter revolt should they choose to go back on their promises that funding triggers in HB2800 (Oregon’s CRC bonding bill), were in fact binding.

The list of bias and hostility that many motorists project towards the cycling community seems to never end. If it weren’t bad enough that those who choose to commute via bicycle have to contend with risking our lives amid a sea of boat-sized SUVs, we also have to tolerate a tsunami if ignorance from auto-centric minds about the ways our road infrastructure is funded.

Case in point – at last week’s Columbia River Crossing hearing in Salem, Oregon, two concerned citizen cyclists made the over 100 mile round trip journey from Portland, OR by bike to testify against the nightmare 12 lane freeway expansion. They did so not only to show that our transportation times are a’ changin’, but that commuting on a bike isn’t something restricted to inner cities. While their testimony was well received and admired by many, afterwards an aging gentleman yelled angrily into the microphone, accusing “bikers” of being “freeloaders” who should “pay their fair share of the CRC” so that motorists could avoid tolls. Apparently he’d forgot what mode the 12 lanes were for, or maybe he’d simply forgotten to take his meds.

At the conclusion of the hearing, it was announced that a second public proceeding would take place the following Monday, during which more testimony would be heard. I was so inspired by the two who pedaled to Salem that I contacted one of them, my friend Michael Hernandez, to ask if we could organize a larger group to ride the 100 mile trip together. He accepted. Monday, February 18th, 2013 at 9:00AM in a tiny coffee shop in Southeast Portland, six determined men gathered with gear and signs to ride into battle against the Columbia River Crossing.

Another week, another 180° change of policy coming out of the mayors office. Like many Portlanders who supported Charlie Hales’ opponent in the election, I committed to giving Charlie the benefit of the doubt as he took office. I was even excited when reports that his alleged focus on auto-centric infrastructure might yet give way to transportation values more in line with our city’s reputation as a national leader in manifesting active transit and designing complete streets. Sadly, only one month into his first term as mayor, Charlie Hales has been an absolute disappointment.

During the campaign, Jefferson Smith ran on a platform of intelligent opposition to the Columbia River Crossing and coal exports via trains and barges through our region. So much so, in fact, that after initially refusing to take a stance, Hales was finally forced to start mimicking Smith’s talking points, claiming “I sure am” against coal by way of a press release. When asked if Hales would push for state and federal funding for the CRC, Hales stated firmly, “No. I support a fundable, buildable project and I don’t believe the current proposal meets those tests.” During a debate hosted by KGW and the Oregonian, Hales confessed, “I don’t think the current version is fundable or buildable…let’s right size the thing. 17 lanes across Hayden Island is probably not the right number.”

“In 1980, whale watching surpassed whaling as an industry. Now it’s worth about four times as much. Whale watching provides far, far more jobs to people than whaling ever did.”
~ Paul Watson

The argument goes something like this: ‘We recognize that the planet is dying, but jobs’. All of Australia is aflame due to climate change, but we must provide jobs. There’s so much smog in China that you can conceal a factory on fire inside of it, but the economy comes first, so we need job growth. The Columbia River Crossing will increase carbon emissions, additional lanes incentivize additional traffic, but cars make jobs happen. Coal exports through our region will poison the air and increase respiratory illness, but yeah, sorry…jobs.

Ad nauseam we’re told that ecological devastation is unfortunate, yet unavoidable. The situation can’t be helped because somebody somewhere needs a job, and by God, no tree-hugging, job-killing regulations are gonna stand in the way!

But isn’t this Oregon? – a state widely considered to be the most sustainable and progressive in the nation, teaming with trees and hippies and salmon? Not anymore, there’s a new sheriff in town. Oregon’s reputation as a Green stronghold is being seriously threatened by some otherwise fairly blue Democrats pulling the jobs card to endorse every bad policy that comes their way. Their argument is not only absurdly childish, but dangerously ignorant, and it’s time for it to end, for all our sake.